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The Dictator and the most extreme movie propaganda ever.

May 16th, 2012

 

Sacha Baron Cohen is not one to shy away from controversy. In fact, he has made a whole career out of it, pointing out the humour in all manner of taboo subjects and somehow not getting murdered by extremeists in the process. His last blockbuster ‘Bruno’ received a smattering of average reviews, so his new offering ‘The Dictator’ is going to have to blow everything else he’s done out of the water. Cohen and co hired the best advertising and PR teams in the film business to come up with a campaign which started running months and months before the 16th May release date, a campaign which has reached fever pitch in the last week or so.

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Dead heat. Why The Exclusives is unfair on us all.

May 15th, 2012

Perhaps we shouldn’t expect anything more from ITV2 – after all, this is the home of Celebrity Juice, Life On Murrs and The Only Way Is Essex.  But while those shows may grate and irritate, they manage to avoid devaluing and trivialising the achievements of others. More than can be said of ‘The Exclusives’, the latest addition to TV’s range of alternative Job Centres.

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Do you have to be nuts to be a creative genius?

May 14th, 2012

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was employed as a junior copywriter. Salary 4.5K. 1-month holiday a year. 1½ hours for lunch. I was not the only junior in the creative dept mind. There were three others and one guy in particular had some very peculiar tendencies.

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All in the name

May 12th, 2012


In the past, we bloggers at Creativepool have given our opinions, advice and guidance…whether you asked for it or not! Hey, that’s blogging for you. The internet is a free-for-all where anyone can purport to be an “expert”, but luckily, at Creativepool, we have standards and experience. Just don’t believe everything you read on LinkedIn discussion forums; some of the nonsense I’ve read on there, honestly…

Anyway, today the tables have turned. I want YOUR opinion. Or advice or feedback or criticism. You see, I’m choosing a company and domain name. Oh, and I may want a designer’s help with a logo, too.
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Heads up. The best advertising headlines in the world?

May 11th, 2012

For a jet propulsion lab brochure: “What we do isn’t rocket science. Oh, hang on …”.

For Sainsbury’s: “We say ‘hello’ to good buyers”.

A recruitment ad for security guards: “Who says you can’t have a successful career after the police? Look at Sting.”

These are some of my favourite headlines. But they never ran. It happens. An unappreciative client or account manager, a change of brief – not every great headline makes it to the target audience. Happily, many of them do. So below, allow me to present a few of the very best.

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Cadbury’s Eyebrow. The top 10 YouTube remakes.

May 10th, 2012

Back in 2009 the Cadbury’s Eyebrows spot was the third in a series for the chocolate brand that saw its advertising take the guise of entertainment rather than straightforward marketing. And while ‘Gorilla’ charmed viewers and ‘Cars’ met with mixed reviews, it was ‘Eyebrows’ that captured the imagination and took the world by storm.

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Bauhaus: Art as life

May 9th, 2012

The Barbican has just launched an exhibition about the most influential art school of the twentieth century, the largest to take place in the capital in the last 40 years. That art school is of course Bauhaus – think tubular steel furniture, primary coloured triangles and the fundamental modernist desire to change the world.

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Sublime / Ridiculous. How advertising is getting better and worse.

May 9th, 2012

When looking for the best and worst in the creative field, at least TV advertising saves time and effort. Simply pick a show, ensure it’s on a commercial channel and wait for the break. In those few, short minutes you’re more or less guaranteed to spot a minimum of one atrocity and hopefully, something quite delightful too.

And so it was last night. At a loss for anything half decent to watch (the channels seem to have abandoned bank holidays to a holding position of sheer mediocrity), I defaulted to ’10 Things I Hate About 1999′ with Robert Webb. It was actually slightly more amusing than it sounds, but what really stood out was the second commercial break. Embedded in the standard mix of forgettable plugs for anti-ageing gloop and heavily discounted couches, were two pieces of work which managed to capture all that is imaginative, crafted and classy as well as everything that is crass, glib and trite in telly advertising.

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Writing ads for vampires. How HBO launched the second season of True Blood.

May 7th, 2012

When Series 2 of the hit TV series True Blood was ready to be launched across the US, the executive producer of the show asked his agency, ‘If Vampires are among us how would they be marketed to?’ The agency, Digital Kitchen, decided to stick their neck out and came back with a bloody brilliant idea.

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Spraycan copywriting

May 4th, 2012

Here’s a true story. Back in the late 70’s, right smack in the middle of punk rock, I studied graphic design at Hounslow. Unlike some of the more respectable educational establishments, Hounslow was a bit rough and ‘edgy’. The area around the college was run down and there was a serious amount of racism kicking around – you just had to look at all the NF graffiti about the place to sense the underlying atmosphere of hatred.

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